Same old story different person

[Aquatictimes]

Hey all,

I have been a fish hobbiest for going on two years now. I have learned a lot, but I have a lot to learn. My 10 gallon was once a beautiful planted tank with gorgeous color and life. I have since built my fish room, moved the tank and got a Finnex 24/7 light and now the tank is sad and covered in Fuzz Algae.

As stated in the description of the light I have it set up with "The 24/7 feature starts with a cool lit Dawn, transitions in to a warm sunrise morning, followed by an intense color blazing high noon, scaling down to a red sun drowned Sunset and finishes with a Starry night Blue moonlight." 

Since making these changes I have seen an increase and excess of Fuzz algae. I have been struggling with it for months now. Clearly the tank is not balanced. Yes I know this. And I'm embarrassed to post these photos.  My question is, is the technically low lighting (16.8 watts over a 10 gallon tank)  fixture causing the algae alone by being on all day?

I had started to play with easy green thinking it needed fertilizer but it felt to me like when I put it in the algae got worse. So, far I have taken out the second sponge filter, I thought maybe the water was too oxygenated and needed more CO2. Now I feel like that was a dumb move and that's not gonna give me much more Co2. No I don't have Co2 running in this tank.

This is one of my 7 tanks and the one I struggle with the most. Any helpful information is appreciated. It's taken a lot to for me to suck it up and ask for help. 

The Paramaters:

10 gallon-9 gallon with substrate tank set up almost 2 years ago, Corydoras (are my main featured fish in this tank), ghost shrimp (put in to help with the algae) and a few male Endlers to keep separate from my females for the moment. 

PH: 7.0, Nitrates: 5ppm, Ammonia-.25 (comes out of my tap this amount, I'm on a well near farms with run off), Nitrite: 0, Temp: 75.6, 

 

The last picture with the purple background shows the 10 gallon in its glory days. 

[H.K.Luterman]

Algae loves blue light. Is the night time part of the light cycle using blue lighting? Also, how many hours long is the "daytime?"

[Jungle Fan]

There is no shame in asking for help, no one gets things right all the time, and every once in a while we all still have things that get us stumped.

You've got sufficient lighting. From your pictures You seem to have added a substantial amount of soil which a lot of times comes pre-treated with loads of nutrients like Fluval Plant & Shrimp Stratum; It would explain why it got worse when you added more ferts. Maybe you should consider adding CO2 so your plants can out perform the algae in absorption of the nutrients. From what I see the CO2 might be the only limiting factor. Taking out a sponge doesn't affect the CO2 but diminishes your filtration, also the level of CO2 and oxygen really do not necessarily impact one another.

I add CO2 during the day and oxygen at night simply because plants use CO2 during the day and produce oxygen, and because they use oxygen at night and don't produce it and therefore don't need CO2 when they don't photosynthesize. Letting the CO2 run at night would mostly just be a waste, so I turn it on one hour before the light, and turn it off one hour before the light turns off.

[Brandy]

I vote night needs to be a moonless, starless, black hole. I think, you have light on your tank that the algae can use that the plants cannot. I would normally also say you need more fertilizer. Maybe the fertilizer and blue light were a bad combination, or maybe you can add root tabs strategically?

(pardon small tangental side rant) I do not understand the light manufacturers obsession with blue "night time" light. I live near the sea, and numerous fresh bodies of water, I have been swimming in all of those at night, and I can assure you, nothing like that happens at night. The water is ink black, and you can barely see. Pools. Swimming pools are blue at night. This is exactly why I have not opted for this light.

 

[Aquatictimes]

1 hour ago, H.K.Luterman said:

Algae loves blue light. Is the night time part of the light cycle using blue lighting? Also, how many hours long is the "daytime?"

@H.K.LutermanI do have a blackout period starting at 12 midnight going until 6am. Should I make the blackout more from 9pm to 6am? Would that help?

[H.K.Luterman]

2 minutes ago, Aquatictimes said:

@H.K.LutermanI do have a blackout period starting at 12 midnight going until 6am. Should I make the blackout more from 9pm to 6am? Would that help?

I think it would definitely help. I'd make the blue light phase as short as possible. 

[Aquatictimes]

1 hour ago, Jungle Fan said:

There is no shame in asking for help, no one gets things right all the time, and every once in a while we all still have things that get us stumped.

You've got sufficient lighting. From your pictures You seem to have added a substantial amount of soil which a lot of times comes pre-treated with loads of nutrients like Fluval Plant & Shrimp Stratum; It would explain why it got worse when you added more ferts. Maybe you should consider adding CO2 so your plants can out perform the algae in absorption of the nutrients. From what I see the CO2 might be the only limiting factor. Taking out a sponge doesn't affect the CO2 but diminishes your filtration, also the level of CO2 and oxygen really do not necessarily impact one another.

@Jungle Fan

First of all, Thank you for your kindness!!

Secondly, you have a really good eye. Yes it was  Fluval Plant & Shrimp Stratum when it got low and I added new plants about a year ago I did add some Aqueon Substrate  (which I would never use again) but other then that the substrate has remained the same for a year. My question is how long is substrate good, doesn't the plant use up the nutrients naturally after a while? Would a year be sufficient to use those fertilizers in the substrate up?

I've never entertained the idea of Co2 mostly because Cory said it's really not needed. I also worry that it would add yet another element I would need to balance with the tank (and also I would need to research as I have absolutely no clue about Co2 injections.) But thank you for the information about Co2 at night! That is good info to have. 

Thank you for the dialouge!

 

 

 

 

[Aquatictimes]

1 hour ago, Brandy said:

I vote night needs to be a moonless, starless, black hole.

 

@Brandy

This made me laugh!! Yeah I'm leaning towards trying this like you and @H.K.Lutermansuggested. I'll make the blackout time longer. 

I'll start with that. Stop Fertilizers, which I was already doing, and watch it to see if it balances. Now, I did at H2O2 last night to try and kill some of the algae so that the plants weren't suffocating. Should I stop that or continue that for the rest of the week?